Recently, I saw one of the best knocks from Sachin against Australia (175) at Hydrabad, in which India sadly ended up on the loosing side. Immediately, few critics people started pointing fingers at Sachin that he couldn't finish the game. It has been a long standing debate going on in the cricketing world.
So, today, I decided to collect some statistics about Sachin and show it to people who claim that his centruries do not result in win for india. Its been a long time since I wanted to do this,but never got a chance. This analysis would be done by many many people before, but I wanted to do it for my satisfaction.
So here it goes.
ODIS
Sachin has scored 45 centuries as of 11/7/2009.
Total Win Loss n/a
45 32 12 1
WIN Percentage 72%
LOSS Percentage 28%
Out of 32 Victories (in which Sachin made centuries)
19 Centruries were in 1st innings
13 were in 2nd innings
Percentage of 1st innings centruries in which India won - 59%
Percentage of 2nd innings centruries in which India won - 41%
By looking at the numbers above, We clearly see that India has won 72% of the time when Sachin hit the century. Is this not a big percentage of WIN?? We can't expect 100% win ratio, can we ?? Sachin is not a 'Super-Human' and to add to this, this is over a period of 16 years (Sachin hit his first century in 1994). 16 years is a long long period and to be consistent for such a long time, it required passion and commitment for the game.
There are many people who say that Sachin is not a good finisher. And there are better finishers to the game like S Waugh, Bevan and Rahul Dravid. Yesterday, I had this conversation with my friends and Nauman put forward a very good point i.
Nauman: You cant compare apples vs oranges ... ur Bevan and S.Waugh came in to win with 100 needed off 85 balls ... Sachin came in with 350 needed off 300 balls,and I hardly recall Hayden/Gilchrist ever playing 45 overs and scoring 150+ to win games ...ocassionally yes, consistently no same with Jaysuria, same with Saeed Anwar. The only thing that pollutes your mind is that all great openers get out when 100 is needed to win off 80 balls and hand it to the Bevan and Hussey to finish it Sachin just unfortunately scores that extra 50 runs. I think watever games he has one single-handedly were just miracles, the ones where he fell short just proves he is not super-human ... but other humans around him need to contribute.
Another article that correctly describes the "Greatness" of Sachin
The above article describes the 'longevity' is the most important virtue for the greatness. Excerpt from article:
" That longevity assumes all the qualities that everyone else finds dear. If you are good enough to play at the highest level for 20 years you must possess virtually every quality in a sportsman."
Coming back to the winning percentage and loss percentage, the winning percentage for the matches in which Sachin scored century in 1st innings vs 2nd innings is 59% vs 41% which is not bad at all considering the amount of cricket he has played.
TEST MATCHES
Total Win Loss Draaw
42 16 9 17
WIN Percentage 38%
LOSS Percentage 21%
DRAW Percentage 41%
If you take out the number of draws from the above numbers,
then
WIN Percentage 64%
LOSS Percentage 36%
64% for Winning- is that a bad number?? What else can we ask for ??
Out of 16 Victories (in which Sachin made centuries)
13 Centruries were in 1st innings
3 were in 2nd innings
Percentage of 1st innings centruries in which India won - 81%
Percentage of 2nd innings centruries in which India won - 19%
Ok - critics may say that 19% is a very small percentage (the cases where Sachin hit centuries in the second innings of the Test Match) and they may say that his centuries in 1st innings may not have come under pressure.
I tried to dig a bit more in to the centuries that he hit in the first innings
165 India vs England - 1993 - India batted first
142 India vs Srilanka - 1994 - India batted first
122 India vs Zimbabwe - 2000 - India batted second and needed only 190 runs (out of which Sachin scored 39)
126 India vs Australia - 2001 - India needed only 155
176 India vs Zimbabwe - 2002 - India won by an innings
117 India vs West Indies - 2002 - India batted first
193 India vs England - 2002 - India batted first and won by an innings
194 India vs Pakistan - 2004 - India batted first and won by an innings
248 India vs Bangladesh - 2004 - India batted second and won by an innings
109 India vs Srilanka - 2005 - India batting second
122 India vs Bangladesh - 2007 - India batted first and won bt an innings
109 India vs Australia - 2008 - India batted first
160 India vs New zealand - 2009 - India batted second and won by an innings
So for the 13 occasions, when Sachin hit the century in the first innings, India won 6 of those test matches by an innings. This ratio is 46%.
This shows this man's dominance over the opponent's team when he scores big runs.
There is a section of people who blame Sachin for not scoring runs when we are chasing in the second innings when India looses. When a team has lost a game, you can't blame an individual for not scoring runs. Entire team is to blame for the loss.
I can go on and on about this, but people need to understand the contribution this great person has given to cricket and appreciate his hard work that he puts in for our country. He takes the burden of expectations of 1 billion people with so ease and modesty. I haven't seen any other sportsman who is so talented and so down to earth. (Is Roger Ferdrer this down to earth?? I don't think so, Can you think of any other sportsman? I can't)
Sachin was awarded the MoM in the match @ Hydrabad. When he came to take the award, I could feel the agony, pain in his eyes. While talking to Arunlal, he almost had tears in his eyes. I have never seen Sachin in so much pain before. The only time that comes to my mind is, 1999 world cup when his father had passed away. At that time, he was in deep pain.
So where does he go from here?
One of the email that I got from my best friend (Nirad) whom I consider as the biggest fan of Sachin ..
"When will Fortune stop being tantalisingly cruel
to Indians in general and Sachin in particular?
i did believe the tide had finally turned in our favour
with the Sydney final (117*) & the Chennai chase (103*)
but the dream was shattered again. And paradoxically
by the very shot which has remained his virtual lifeline"
I am hoping that there is still something more in store for him and he has saved the BEST for the LAST!
I'll end the blog with my favorite metaphor about Sachin:
"Commit all your crimes while Sachin is batting. Even the GOD is busy watching him bat"
I'll end the blog with my favorite metaphor about Sachin:
"Commit all your crimes while Sachin is batting. Even the GOD is busy watching him bat"
3 comments:
Good article, critics should answer one thing, what is team India without Sachin?
Nice article,
An interesting statistic would be - if you could find - the percentage of matches which the chasing team lost after one of the batsmen (of the team batting 2nd) made a century.
Nice analysis, though I wish we didn't have to go throught the pain of Chennai 1999 & Hyderabad 2009. But if there was a Chennai 2008 that redressed that balance, perhaps there's something in the offing to compensate for Hyd 2009?
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